The Multnomah County Library begins a new online service today, offering its patrons the option of borrowing digital music and videos and checking them out online, without a trip to their library branch.

The new service, from a company called Hoopla Digital, offers Netflix-style streaming over computers and mobile devices running Google’s Android operating system and Apple’s iOS, for iPhone and iPad.

Hoopla’s video library is thin, consisting primarily of educational titles from documentaries, older films, and second-tier TV and movies. (It’s got “The Mummy and “The Mummy Returns,” for example, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and a selection of National Geographic programs.)

But its music library is robust. It features, among others, the “Frozen” soundtrack, Lorde’s hit album “Pure Heroine,” plus many other top performers from genres including country, pop, rock and blues.

Library patrons can check out digital albums for one week and check out videos for three days. There’s no waiting period – titles are available immediately.

Hoopla will replace Freegal, a music download service that enabled cardholders to download three songs per week. Freegal downloads aren’t loans – patrons keep the songs they download. But Freegal’s music library is limited; it consisted primarily of artists signed to Sony and its subsidiaries – a list that includes Michael Jackson, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, among others. The library’s contract with Freegal ends January 31.

Freegal was the most-requested search term on the library's website last year; usage peaked in fiscal 2012, when library users downloaded more than 283,000 songs. The library subsequently limited the number of songs cardholders could download to one a week, but restored full service this year after voters created a special taxing district to fund library operations.

The library indicated it switched to Hoopla in part because it has more offerings and in part because its titles can be integrated right into the library’s online catalog, so patrons looking for a specific song or album will see immediately if that music is available from Hoopla, alongside CD listings.

The library was spending about $180,000 a year on Freegal, which charged a flat fee. Hoopla’s fee is based on usage; the library has budgeted about $250,000 for it.

The Multnomah County Library, like others systems across the country, is steadily adding to its digital offerings as more and more people find their books, music and movies online. Last month was the first that digital checkouts exceeded checkouts at any one of Multnomah County's branch libraries.